Socket for starter units for fluorescent lamps



Oct. 16, 1951 J 0, HOWARD 2,571,881

SOCKET FOR STARTER UNITS FOR FLUORESCENT LAMPS Filed Dec. 16, 1946 Patented Oct. 16, 1951 SOCKET FOR STARTER UNITS FOR FLUORESCENT LAMPS Joseph 0. Howard, Chicago, Ill., assignor of onehalf to Peter J. Franklin, Chicago, Ill.

Application December 16, 1946, Serial No. 716,631

4 Claims. (01. 173328) This invention pertains to sockets and receptacls for electrical equipment having pin contacts, such, for example, as starter units for fluorescent lamps, and the like.

One of the principal objects of the invention is the provision of a socket structure which may be manufactured from an assembly of punchings and stampings from sheet stocks of both metal and insulating materials.

Viewed from another aspect, it is an important object of the invention to provide an economically manufactured socket of rugged structural quality and highly satisfactory electrical characteristics, which can be made as an assembly item from punching and stampings of flat stocks, and which requires none of the expensive and frequently breakable molded parts commonly found in sockets of the type described.

Additional objects are, specifically, the provision in a socket structure of insulating wafers supporting contacts therebet-ween by tongue and slot formations, with channel-shaped spacers between the wafers, or certain of them, and in a certain ofi'set relationship to the contacts, for holding certain wafer elements in position by slotted engagement therewith, and for maintaining other wafer elements in position by tongue and slot engagement therewith, as well as securing the whole in assembled condition, all as more particularly revealed hereinafter.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects and aspects of novelty, relate to structural and functional details of the novel socket and the embodiment thereof to be described in view of the annexed drawing in which:

Fig. 1 i a perspective view of a fluorescent lamp fixture of a type with which the novel socket is adapted to be used;

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section, to enlarged scale, of a portion of said lamp fixture and the novel socket structure therein, other parts being shown in elevation;

Fig. 3 is a transverse cross section along lines 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the socket;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section through the socket;

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary view of the contact end of a lamp starter of the type adapted to be mounted in said socket;

Fig. '7 is a perspective detail of one of the contact arms;

Fig. 8 is a vertical section through the socket along lines 8-8 of Fig. 5.

Referring to Fig. 8, the socket structure is assembled from thin wafers of insulating material,

wafers or plates aforesaid, is an intermediate suitably stamped and punched in particulars hereinafter appearing, there being a pair of lower wafers I0 and II, and a pair of upper wafers I2 and I3, the shape of these wafers being that of the top-most wafer I3 as it appears in Fig. 4.

Between the upper and lower sets of insulating guide wafer I4, Fig. 8, supported rigidly by and between a pair of channel spacers I5 stamped from sheet metal, said spacers being of substantially U-shaped cross section with clinching lugs or ears I6 projecting from the ends thereof and clinched over onto the outermost wafers of the top and bottom sets as shown in Figs. 4 and 8, the latter showing only one of said spacers, while the former figure shows the ears turned over onto the top-most wafer I3.

Said channel-shaped spacers are punched to provide aligned slot in the regions I! thereof to receive the thickness of the intermediate guide wafer I4, as in Fig. 8, said wafer having opposite tongue portions I8 fitting into the channel portion of the corresponding spacers, so that said intermediate or guide wafer is securely supported in a position about midway between the upper and lower sets of wafers, said guide wafer I4, as in Figs. 4 and 5, having a pair of elongated, slightly arcuated contact pin slots I9 disposed about a center therein, and each said slot being provided with an enlarged terminal portion ISA to receive the correspondingly enlarged head portions 20 of the contact pins on the starter unit 2| shown in Fig. 6.

The two upper wafers I2 and I3 are punched to provide registering circular openings 22, Fig. 4 to receive the base portion of the starter unit 2| so that the contact pins 28 of the latter may be inserted into the enlarged terminal portions I9A of the slots in the guide wafer, said starter thereafter being turned to lock the contacts thereof with certain contact arms to be described.

The contact arms are formed as exemplified in Fig. 7, wherein a stamping of brass or other conductive material is shown to include a body portion 25 perforated and tapped at 26 to receive screw 21 (Fig. 8) by which a conductor is attached to the arm, an edge portion 28 of said body or root portion of the contact arm bein struck up to afford a stop for additionally confining the conductor in connection with said screw.

Important to the mounting of the contact arms in the socket are tab or ear portions 29 formed integrally with the body or root portion and respectively fitting into slots punched in the innermost wafer of each said pair or set, as illustrated in Fig. 8; in other words, wafers II and 2 are provided with slots to receive said tab portions 29 on the contact arms, but the outermost wafers I and [3 are not provided with such slots, although .both sets of wafers, that is to say, both wafers of. each pair or set, are punched to permit passage therethrough of the clinching cars 16 on the channel spacers.

Extending from the root or body portion of each contact is an offset or curved arm portion 30 provided with a contact-locking crimp or notch 3!, Figs. 5 and '7, into which the contact pins 20 of the starter unit snap when the starter is turned home after the headed portions of said starter contacts are fitted into the enlarged terminal portions [9A of the pin slots, Fig. 4, the relative disposition of said locking notches 3| and the arcuate pin slots I9 appearing especially in Fig. 4.

It will now appear that the novel socket structure may be readily assembled from simple and inexpensive punchings and stampings of ordinary sheet stock and that in its completed form the socket comprises a pair of upper and lower wafers rigidly connected in parallel spaced relation by channel spacers crimped into the respective pairs, a pair of contact arms being firmly seated'between said pairs by engagement of tabs thereon in punched formations in the innermost wafer of each said pair, there being further an intermediate guide wafer slotted to guide contact pins relative to the contact arms.

It will be appreciated that the outermost wafer of each said pair or set might be omitted, and the-contact arms could be maintained in position by clinching of the spacer channel onto upper and lower wafers, only; however, this arrangement is not commercially desirable if the wafers are to be inexpensively stamped from the relatively thin stock necessary for economical punching and stamping operations, additional strength being afforded by the laminated structure shown, utilizing at least two wafers in the upper and lower sets.

The novel socket is readily adapted to, and mounted in, a standard lighting fixture of the type illustrated in l, which includes a base or box portion 4% generally mounted on the ceiling and-having opposite lamp sockets 4| pendant therefrom to mount an elongated tubular lamp 42 of the fluorescent variety. requiring a starter element such as the device 2| heretofore alluded to; aportion of which is shown protruding from the base of the lamp fixture in Fig. 1.

One of the lamp sockets 4| is shown in Fig. 2, the same preferably being of the construction disclosed in my copending patent application Serial No. 716,630, filed December 16, 1946, a feature of which is the mounting bracket of channel shape, indicated at 43 and attached to said socket by lugs 44 as a means for securing in position certain cover plate parts (not illustrated) of the socket while at the same time affording a means for mounting the lamp socket on the fixture, as by screw 45, said channel shaped mounting bracket further affording a means for mounting the starter socket in position, one side portion of said channel bracket being punched to permit passage therethrough of the clinching ears I6 at one end of one of the channel spacers I5 of the starter socket, Figs. 2 and 3.

The novel socket structure is rugged enough to withstand considerable abuse in shipping, in-

stallation, and use; no molding dies are required, and those stamping and punching dies which are utilized in manufacturing the Wafers, contacts, and spacers, are of quite simple and inexpensive nature; moreover, the sheet stock or insulation material, as well as the metal stock for the contact arms and spacers, is commonly used in great quantities in industry and is normally quite cheap and available and is of such character, along with the methods by which the parts are struck oil, to facilitate large-scale manufacture of the'sockets by highly economical methods.

Certain objects, advantages, and aspects of novelty and utility peculiar to the improved socket structure have been emphasized in conjunction with the disclosure herein of specific forms and detail of one commercial embodiment of the invention, but it is to be understood that the scope of the invention is not intended to be limited by such specific recitations; that the invention is intended to include modified and variant forms of embodiment described within the ambit of the appended claims and features of improvement originating with this description and disclosure.

I claim:

1. A socket comprising parallel insulating wafers spaced apart in parallelism by at least two channel spacers each having lugs in opposite ends thereof and clinchingly engaged with a wafer member at the corresponding end thereof, a pair of contact arms disposed in the space between said wafers and secured in position by tab projections thereon engaged in slot formation in said wafers, and an intermediate guide Wafer disposed in the region between said parallel wafers and adjacent said contact arms, said intermediate wafer having portions supportably interfitting with recessed and slot portions of said spacers, and contact guiding openings in said intermediate wafer.

2. In a socket structure, a pair of upper wafers and a pair of lower wafers of insulating material, a pair of channel shaped spacers between said pairs of wafers, each spacer having lugs at its ends passing through the wafers at the corresponding ends and struck over to secure said pairs of Wafers in parallelism, an intermediate wafer between said pairs and secured in position by interfit with slot formations in said spacers, a pair of contact arms disposed between one pair of waters and said intermediate wafer and each arm having a root portion spanning the distance between said pairs of wafers at a point spaced from one of said spacersto maintain the pairs of wafers in spaced relation cooperatively with said spacers, each said root portion having a pair of tabs, each of said tabs being fitted into a slot in the innermost one of the wafers or" one of said pairs to hold said contact arms in position, said intermediate wafer being formed to permit spanning of the root portions across the space between the pairs of wafers as aforesaid, said intermediate wafer having openings to guide contact pins relative to said contact arms, one pair of said wafers having a passage therethrough for reception of a socketed member having contact pins for engagement with said contact arms, said channel members and said root portions being disposed in quadrangular array and affording four-point support for said pair of wafers.

3. A socket comprising insulating wafers of approximately rectangular form, a pair of spacers of U-shaped cross section between said wafers and having'lugs at their respective ends clinched over through said wafers to secure the latter in spaced parallelism, a pair of contact disposed between said wafers and each having tab and slot supporting engagement with said wafers, said spacers being offset on opposite sides of the longest axis of said wafers and one of each of said contacts being positioned on a side of said axis opposite one of said spacers, said contacts havmg root portions spanning the distance between said parallel wafer to maintain the latter in spaced relation cooperatively with said spacers, a guide wafer having interfitted tongue and notch engagement with said spacers, with openings for guiding contact elements relative to said contacts.

4. In a socket structure, top and bottom plates spaced apart at the axially opposite ends of channel-shaped spacers therebetween, said spacers having endwise ears clinched into corresponding plates, each spacer having a side opening facing in a general sense toward the side opening in the other, and an intermediate plate supported, between said top and bottom plates, by tongue formations thereon projecting into said side openings of each spacer together with body portions adjoining said tongue formations fitted into slot formations in said spacers, said tongue formations preventing displacement of the intermediate plate in a direction laterally of the axis between said opposite ends, and said portions in the slot formations preventing displacement in the direction of said axis and said opposite ends, contact mean between said top and bottom plates, and contact guide formations in said intermediate plate.

JOSEPH O. HOWARD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,963,793 Kimbell June 19, 1934 2,261,170 MacCarthy Nov. 4, 1941 2,290,701 Mueller July 21, 1942 2,424,986 Hubbell et a1. Apr. 5,1947 

